CIU177 / DIT176 Prototyping in interaction design lp1 HT23 (7.5 hp). Course is offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Course purpose

The course gives an introduction to, and practice in, creation of different types of prototypes in Interaction Design. The contents cover both physical prototypes (e.g. paper prototypes, prototyping through controllers and micro-controllers, and prototyping through tinkering and physical modeling) and digital, screen-based prototypes (sketching, coding and design of interactive prototypes, video prototypes). The student can choose to focus on either a physical or screen-based prototyping path but should have basic skills and experience in both.

After the course, you should have a clear understanding of the use and idea of prototyping in Interaction design, as well as be able to create prototypes at different levels of fidelity using appropriate tools and technologies.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe how prototypes are used in interaction design.
• List the pros and cons with different types of prototypes.
• Explain what can be learned from a certain prototype and why.
• Explain what can not be learned from a certain prototype and why.

Skills and abilities

• create physical prototypes in various materials, with various techniques
• create video prototypes to present a concept or proposal
• create simple sketch prototypes
• create digital/physical prototypes
• perform basic programming of micro-controllers connected to sensors and
actuators
• program simple interactive prototypes

Judgment and approach

• decide which type of prototype to use in order to find out what needs to be learned
or tested, taking possible constraints into account, e.g. time and budget
• apply early stage evaluations
• incorporate suitable prototypes at the right stages in a design process

Examination

The examination is based on four parts:

• The practical performance and presentations during participation in workshops, usually done in groups. This work has a fail/pass grading.
• Written, relatively short documentation from each workshop, written on an individual basis. Including text, sketches, audio, images, video, and code (as relevant for each workshop). This work has a fail/pass grading.
• Group prototyping project demonstrating the IxD process and developed prototype/s. This work has a fail/pass grading.
• Final report written in groups. The report must include references to course literature and central topics presented during the course, as well as discussions of how your own project related to the theories and models.

In order to receive a final grade on the course, a student needs to pass workshops, project work, video demo and final report.

Contact details

• Examiner: Mohammad Obaid (mobaid@chalmers.se)
• Teacher: Sjoerd Hendriks (henricus@chalmers.se)
• Teacher: Georgios Diapoulis (georgios.diapoulis@chalmers.se)
• Teaching Assistant: Arielle Zaragatzky
• Teaching Assistant: Andrea Carrion del Fresno
• Teaching Assistant: Paulina Palmberg

Student Representatives:

• Amanda Vorberg
• Tawfik Arnouk
• Hind Mansour
• Noor Al Allaf
• Sara Sehdo

Course design

Link to the course's Schedule: Link

Course literature

Link to Literature for the Prototyping Course: Link

GU and Chalmers Syllabi

Link to Chalmers syllabus: Link

Link to GU syllabus: Link

Changes made since the last occasion

• The project topic has changed 
• The exam is changed now to a group project report
• Literature sessions adjusted